Day: March 9, 2019

President Trump lashed out at conservative pundit Ann Coulter on Saturday, labeling her a “Wacky Nut Job” and insisting he was “winning on the Border” despite opposition from a hostile Democratic Party.

Coulter, one of Trump’s earliest supporters, has evolved into a persistent critic the president in recent months over his struggles to secure funding from Congress for his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Wacky Nut Job @AnnCoulter, who still hasn’t figured out that, despite all odds and an entire Democrat Party of Far Left Radicals against me (not to mention certain Republicans who are sadly unwilling to fight), I am winning on the Border. Major sections of Wall are being built…,” Trump tweeted.

….and renovated, with MUCH MORE to follow shortly. Tens of thousands of illegals are being apprehended (captured) at the Border and NOT allowed into our Country. With another President, millions would be pouring in. I am stopping an invasion as the Wall gets built. #MAGA,” he continued.

Coulter, whose books include “In Trump We Trust,” and "Resistance is Futile," did not reply to the president via Twitter on Saturday, but has been relentless in her criticism. In January, after lawmakers reached an agreement to end the 35-day partial government shutdown, she called Trump the "the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States."

During an appearance on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” she said Trump backed down on his demands for the wall in order to reopen the government without securing funding from House Democrats.

“I promise you the country would be run much better if I had a veto over what Donald Trump is doing. It’s crazy that I expect a president to keep the promise he made every day for 18 months,” Coulter told Maher over Trump’s border wall promise.

During Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress in February, Coulter labeled the speech as “the lamest, sappiest, most intentionally tear-jerking SOTU ever.”

Coulter is scheduled to speak Monday at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches in Florida, not far from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, the Palm Beach Post reported.

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Hyundai Motor is seen on wall at a event of Hyundai Motor Co’s new Accent in Mexico City, Mexico August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero

March 10, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – Hyundai Motor Co <005380.KS> is in talks with potential investors to develop its new headquarters planned for the South Korean capital of Seoul to share additional investment costs worth about 3.7 trillion won ($3.27 billion), it said on Sunday.

The South Korean automaker said in a statement that the company is in talks with various investors, including pension funds, that are showing interest in the project.

“The joint development is expected to alleviate the Group’s direct investment scale and enhance the Group’s overall brand image,” the statement added.

Hyundai Motor aims to construct its new headquarters in Seoul by 2023.

Hyundai purchased the property in southern Seoul from state-run utility Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) <015760.KS> at a record $10 billion in 2014, more than triple its appraised market price.

The headquarters project has been criticized by Hyundai shareholders such as U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, which has called on Hyundai to drop the project.

Hyundai and Elliott are heading for a showdown at this month’s shareholders meeting as Elliott has called for higher dividends and made recommendations for new board members.

Houston Rockets guard James Harden will play Sunday at the Dallas Mavericks, after precautionary X-rays came back negative on his right wrist and he was cleared to practice on Saturday.

Harden, the NBA’s scoring leader (36.6 points per game), aggravated the wrist injury Friday night when he fell in the first half of a win over the Philadelphia 76ers. He left briefly but returned and finished with 31 points in 32 minutes.

Harden, who is left-handed, first hurt the wrist on March 3 against the Boston Celtics. He has missed just four games to injury this year, and only one since Nov. 2.

The Rockets, who are finally healthy elsewhere on the roster, have won seven straight games to move into third place in the Western Conference. They sit three games back of Denver for the second spot and five games back of first-place Golden State.

–Los Angeles Lakers forward Brandon Ingram is expected to miss the rest of the regular season after the team’s medical staff revealed a deep venous thrombosis in his right arm, the team announced.

The third-year wing had missed the last two games due to shoulder soreness before further testing revealed the new diagnosis.

Meanwhile, multiple reports indicate second-year Lakers guard Lonzo Ball has also been shut down for the remainder of the season after having his injured left ankle re-evaluated. Ball has missed the team’s last 18 games as a result of the injury.

–The NBA fined Oklahoma City star Paul George $25,000 for his criticism of the officiating following the Thunder’s 118-110 loss to the Clippers on Friday night in Los Angeles.

George and teammates Russell Westbrook and Steven Adams all fouled out over the final four minutes of the game, and George called it “bad officiating” and said the Thunder “don’t get a fair whistle. We haven’t gotten a fair whistle all year.”

The Clippers took 46 free-throw attempts in the game, with Lou Williams and Danilo Gallinari each going to the foul line 15 times. The Thunder had 26 free-throw attempts as a team.

–The Minnesota Timberwolves signed Cameron Reynolds to a second 10-day contract that will keep the forward with the team at least through the middle of March.

Reynolds, who went undrafted out of Tulane in 2018, was signed to his first 10-day contract Feb. 27 after he averaged 16.0 points with 4.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists with the Stockton Kings of the NBA G League. He has scored four points in seven minutes of two games with Minnesota.

In four games with the USA Men’s World Cup Qualifying Team, Reynolds shot 45.9 percent from the field and 41.9 percent from 3-point range. In a Feb. 22 victory over Panama, he had 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field and made 6 of 11 shots from 3-point range.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is engaged to the pop star, actress and producer Jennifer Lopez, they announced on social media on Saturday, sharing a photo of her ring.

“She said yes,” Rodriguez, known as A-Rod, said on Twitter. Lopez, or J-Lo, shared the same photograph along with multiple heart symbols. The couple have been dating since 2017.

Lopez, who began her career as a dancer and singer, is also a film and television actress and producer. She was a judge on “American Idol”, appeared on TV police drama “Shades of Blue”, and is the producer of shows including “World of Dance”.

In Rodriguez’s 22-year career he hit 696 home runs, placing him fourth on Major League Baseball’s all-time home run list. He retired in 2016.

FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is seen during the annual Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany February 16, 2019. REUTERS/Andreas Gebert

March 10, 2019

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden topped a poll of Iowa voters on Saturday that also showed Senator Bernie Sanders gaining momentum against him in the No. 2 spot.

Biden, who has not announced whether he is running in the 2020 election, is the first choice for president of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers with 27 percent in the Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll. Sanders, 77, got 25 percent.

“If I’m Joe Biden sitting on the fence and I see this poll, this might make me want to jump in,” J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co, which conducted the poll, told the Des Moines Register.

The newspaper’s Iowa poll has a long track record of relative accuracy in the state that kicks off the presidential nominating process. In this cycle, Iowa will hold the first contest in the Democratic race in February 2020.

Nearly 65 percent of the voters said Biden, 76, who was also a U.S. senator first elected in 1972, has more experience than any other candidate and should enter the race, while 31 percent said his time as a candidate has passed.

Sanders, a progressive populist who held a rally in Iowa as the poll was being conducted last week, gained 6 percentage points from 19 percent in the group’s previous poll released in December. Biden fell 5 percentage points from 32 percent in the last poll.

At least a dozen major candidates already have jumped into the Democratic contest to pick a nominee to challenge Republican President Donald Trump, and Democrats are still waiting for decisions in coming weeks from other big names such as Biden and former Congressman Beto O’Rourke of Texas.

In most national polls of Democrats, Biden has a solid lead while Sanders, who lost the 2016 Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton, typically is in second. In those polls, Senator Kamala Harris of California has vaulted into third ahead of other senators including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

In the Iowa poll, Warren was third with 9 percent of voters, and Harris was fourth with 7 percent. O’Rourke got 5 percent of voters, down 6 percentage points from December.

It was the Register’s first Iowa poll since candidates began jumping into the race at the beginning of the year. The poll also surveyed support of likely Iowa caucus-goers on issues that have dominated the early discussion and drawn support from most of the Democratic presidential contenders.

The Green New Deal, a proposal by Democrats in Congress to tackle climate change, was supported in full by 65 percent of the Democratic voters, partially by 26 percent, with 4 percent not supporting. The deal would fund government programs on clean energy and make buildings energy efficient while helping to address poverty.

Support was also measured for Medicare-for-all, a plan first proposed by Sanders in 2017, to replace the current mix of private and government financed healthcare coverage with a universal coverage plan funded solely by the government. It was supported by 49 percent of the likely caucus-goers, partially by 35 percent, with 11 percent not supporting.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner, additional reporting by John Whitesides; editing by Richard Chang)

President Donald Trump has tapped seven of Justice Clarence Thomas’s former clerks for appeals court nominations since taking office.

An eighth former Thomas clerk, Neomi Rao, will likely be confirmed in the near future.

The justice actively mentors his closely knit network of acolytes.

One credential in particular has been a boon to candidates President Donald Trump considers for judicial appointments: a clerkship with Justice Clarence Thomas.

As of this writing, the president has appointed seven Thomas clerks to the federal appeals courts, while an eighth is expected in the near future. As such, Thomas’s legal approach — sometimes branded unusual or idiosyncratic — can claim adherents among a new generation of judges.

“At this point, Justice Thomas is clearly the leading intellectual force on the conservative side of the bench,” said Carrie Severino, a former Thomas clerk who leads the Judicial Crisis Network, an advocacy group that supports Trump’s efforts to recast the judicial branch.

“His principled approach to the law is very much in the ascendency and those are the kind of judges that this president has pledged for the courts,” Severino added.

Thomas generally hires law clerks who share his originalist judicial philosophy. Among the court’s conservatives, he is somewhat unique in that respect: former Justice Antonin Scalia periodically hired liberal “counter clerks” to sharpen his work, while the hiring practices of other conservatives like Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh appears slightly more varied.

“I’m not going to hire clerks who have profound disagreements with me,” Thomas said during a 1999 lecture at the National Center for Policy Analysis. “Someone said that it’s like trying to train a pig. It wastes your time, and it aggravates the pig.”

As such, the Thomas chambers are an incubator for elite conservative legal talent, producing a pool of candidates for executive and judicial appointments in Republican administrations.

The Thomas clerk who most recently took the bench is Judge Allison Rushing, who was confirmed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. Democrats and civil rights groups opposed her nomination.

The six other Thomas clerks confirmed to the federal appeals courts under Trump include Judge Allison Eid, who took Justice Neil Gorsuch’s seat on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Judge Jim Ho for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Judge David Stras for the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Judge Eric Miller for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Judge Greg Maggs for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and Judge Greg Katsas for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Thomas, who has served on the court for over 25 years and will turn 71 in June, may well be succeeded by one of his own clerks. Eid and Stras are on the president’s list of possible nominees for the Supreme Court. Judge Margaret Ryan of the Armed Forces appeals court, a Thomas clerk whom former President George W. Bush appointed, is also listed.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg leave the White House following a ceremony where Neil Gorsuch was administered the judicial oath on April 10, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Thomas’s own thinking has already appeared in the written work of his proteges. Ho’s first opinion on the 5th Circuit was a dissent from the court’s refusal to review a decision upholding a $350 limit on campaign donations for Austin City Council races in Texas. Ho opened with a reference to a Thomas opinion that accused the courts of elevating certain constitutional protections over others. Additional Thomas citations recur throughout the opinion.

Severino said Thomas actively embraces his mentorship role, regularly holding court with former clerks and dispensing advice on professional matters. Among the other justices, reunions with clerks are common but generally infrequent. For example, retired Justice Anthony Kennedy convened clerk reunions once every few years.

“Justice Thomas is an exceptional mentor,” Severino told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “He is someone that doesn’t just view his clerks as a great source of bright young labor for a year, but really as almost members of his family. He takes on a role in helping them and advising them on their careers.”

Perhaps most importantly, the justice also encourages his alumni to assist one another as a mutually supportive network. Recalling his own bitter confirmation, he hopes his acolytes will never want for allies.

“He encourages his clerks to get out of Dodge as fast as they can,” Severino told TheDCNF. “But for those of us who stay [in Washington], he wants to make sure that there’s always someone who will have your back in what can be a very dog-eat-dog town.”

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Two prospective suitors have cropped up in the days since the Kansas City Chiefs placed the franchise tag on outside linebacker Dee Ford with a potential eye toward making a trade.

Both NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Chiefs are looking to deal the pass-rushing specialist. Additionally, Rapoport reported that the San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers have expressed interest in dealing for Ford.

Ford, 27, earned about $8.7 million in 2018 after the fifth-year option of his contract was exercised. The one-year franchise tag for linebackers is worth $15.44 million in 2019.

He would have to sign the franchise tender before any deal could be made.

Addae recorded 75 tackles while starting all 16 games last season. He started 59 of 80 games played in six seasons with the Chargers, recording two interceptions and 4.5 sacks.

–Tight end Dwayne Allen has agreed to a two-year contract worth a reported $7 million contract with the Miami Dolphins.

Allen, who had 13 receptions for 113 yards in two seasons with New England, recently was cut by the Patriots. He will be playing for new coach Brian Flores, the former New England defensive coordinator.

–The New Orleans Saints agreed to a three-year, $9 million contract with safety Chris Banjo, according to the NFL Network. Banjo had two interceptions last season but primarily has worked on special teams during six NFL seasons with the Green Bay Packers (2013-16) and Saints (2016-18).

–Defensive tackle Michael Pierce and linebacker Patrick Onwuasor are expected to receive second-round tenders from the Baltimore Ravens, according to the NFL Network. Both players are restricted free agents.

–Former NFL defensive end Cedrick Hardman died Friday night. He was 70.

Hardman, a North Texas product, was the No. 9 overall pick in the 1970 NFL Draft by San Francisco. He played 10 seasons with the 49ers and earned two Pro Bowl berths and a pair of All-Pro honors, then finished his career with two seasons in Oakland.

Sacks did not become an official statistic until 1982, but the 49ers credit Hardman with a franchise-most 112.5 during his time with the team. He ranks No. 5 all-time in Niners history in games played by a defensive lineman.

The NBA fined Oklahoma City star Paul George $25,000 on Saturday for his criticism of the officiating following the Thunder’s 118-110 loss to the Clippers on Friday night in Los Angeles.

The fine was announced by Kiki VanDeWeghe, the league’s vice president of basketball operations.

George and teammates Russell Westbrook and Steven Adams all fouled out over the final four minutes of the game.

“It’s just bad officiating,” George said. “I’m sorry, just bad officiating. We don’t get a fair whistle. We haven’t gotten a fair whistle all year.

“Somebody’s got to look into this. It’s getting out of hand, where we somehow just walk teams to the line. And there’s nobody that gets more contact. If I don’t speak for myself, I speak for Russ. There’s nobody that gets more contact than Russ going to the basket. And it’s just crazy. I don’t understand it. It’s a piece of (expletive) being on that floor.”

The Clippers took 46 free-throw attempts in the game, with slashing guard Lou Williams Danilo Gallianri each going to the foul line 15 times. The Thunder had 26 free-throw attempts as a team.

“We’re giving everything we got,” George continued. “We’re playing hard. We’re getting grabbed. We’re getting scratched, clawed, held, shoved. And there’s nothing for it. The officials just get to walk out, and there’s nothing that penalizes them for not officiating the game the right way.”

Masahiro Tanaka will return as Opening Day starter for the New York Yankees once again, with Luis Severino giving up the honor after shoulder inflammation surfaced this week, manager Aaron Boone announced Saturday.

Severino threw a slider while warming up for his spring training start on Tuesday when he felt discomfort. He had been on track to make his second consecutive Opening Day start until the injury surfaced.

Tanaka will now make his fourth start in a Yankees season opener. He had the honor from 2015-17, but the Yankees lost all three of those games.

Tanaka, 30, was 12-6 last season with a 3.75 ERA. He is 64-34 over his five-year major league career with a 3.59 ERA, posting a career-best mark of 2.77 during the 2014 season.

–Seattle Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager will have his injured left wrist examined by a hand specialist.

Seager was injured during Friday’s game against the Chicago Cubs when he jammed his glove into the ground while diving for a grounder hit by Javier Baez of the Chicago Cubs. The club said Seager underwent X-rays, which came back negative, prior to the decision to see a hand specialist.

Also, manager Scott Servais said left-hander Marco Gonzales will make the Opening Day start against the Oakland Athletics in Tokyo. Gonzales went 13-9 with a 4.00 ERA in 29 starts last season.

–Oakland Athletics catcher Chris Herrmann underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, the team announced.

The procedure was performed Friday at Pine Surgical Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., by Dr. Douglas Freedberg. Herrmann will be re-evaluated in two weeks.

Herrmann, 31, was slated to split catching duties for Oakland with veteran Josh Phegley. His injury creates an opportunity for Nick Hundley, who recently joined the club as a non-roster invitee to spring training.

(Reuters) – Santa Anita will open its one-mile main dirt track to limited training on Monday after it was closed for almost a week following the death of 21 horses over two months, officials at the famed Southern California race track said on Saturday.

Training will be restricted to joggers and gallopers, Santa Anita said in a statement.

All training and racing at the track near Los Angeles had been shut down on Tuesday as experts worked to find the reason for the spate of catastrophic injuries sustained by horses racing or training at the main track.

That included calling off a big day of racing on Saturday when the San Felipe Stakes for three-year-old Kentucky Derby contenders and the Santa Anita Handicap for older horses had been scheduled.

“Over the past four days, we’ve been able to do a great deal in terms of amending the soil and inspecting it,” said California-based trackman Dennis Moore, who heads a group of track maintenance personnel and outside experts investigating Santa Anita’s main track.

“I think the most important thing with this track right now is that we closely monitor compaction levels,” Moore said.

He said all the rains in Southern California this winter had affected conditions at the track.

Santa Anita on Friday reopened to light training on its six-furlong inner exercise track after being inspected.

No deaths have occurred on the exercise track.

Depending on the outcome of future inspections and weather, racing could potentially resume at the track on March 21, Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of track owner The Sronach Group, told Daily Racing Form on Friday.

(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina, editing by Nick Mulvenney)

(Reuters) – Matthew Fitzpatrick played bogey-free golf as he eased past Rory McIlroy for a one-stroke lead over the Northern Irishman after the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Florida on Saturday.

Back-to-back birdies at the 15th and 16th holes enabled the Englishman to overtake McIlroy and the 24-year-old saved pars at his final two holes for a five-under-par 67 to head into Sunday’s final round at nine-under 207.

Defending champion McIlroy shot a 66 to surge up the leaderboard at Bay Hill.

The former world number one, strong off the tee, birdied four of his first six holes and three of his final four as he continued solid play for the season.

McIlroy’s round could have been even stronger had he not twice three-putted at par-five holes, including at the 12th where his putting cost him a chance of an eagle.

FILE PHOTO: British and EU flags flutter outside the Houses of Parliament during a pro-Brexit and anti-Brexit demonstration, ahead of a vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, in London, Britain, January 15, 2019. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh/File Photo

March 10, 2019

BELFAST (Reuters) – Northern Ireland businesses urged British lawmakers on Sunday to seek a compromise over the country’s departure from the European Union and avoid the economic and social risks the province faces in crashing out of the bloc without a deal.

Ahead of a vote on Tuesday on the divorce agreement struck with the bloc last year, more than 50 businesses warned members of parliament in an open letter of the dangers of failing to unite behind a way forward that avoids a hard border and protects peace and economic progress in Northern Ireland.

With Britain due to leave the EU on March 29, Prime Minister Theresa May has so far failed to secure the changes to the deal needed to gain parliamentary support, including from the pro-Brexit Northern Irish party propping up her minority government.

Northern Irish business groups have for months urged the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to drop their opposition, at the heart of which is a dispute over managing the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland.

Among the signatories of the letter were major local and multinational employers including Bombardier, Coca-Cola, Danske Bank, Norbrook Laboratories, Queen’s University Belfast, the Viridian Group and Royal Bank of Scotland’s Ulster Bank unit.

In the letter, they said Northern Ireland’s business community is deeply concerned that firms are hugely exposed to the economic fallout from leaving the EU with without a deal and were already hurting from a lack of investment ahead of Brexit.

“A no-deal Brexit will result in significant damage to our export markets, supply chains, consumer spending power and the region’s competitiveness,” the letter said.

“Such a scenario will both hinder indigenous and foreign direct investment, it would result in significant job losses and will stifle opportunities for the next generation across Northern Ireland.”

Reto Ziegler scored on a penalty kick early in the second half and Bryan Acosta added a goal eight minutes later as FC Dallas defeated the visiting Los Angeles Galaxy 2-0 on Saturday afternoon in Frisco, Texas.

Jesse Gonzalez recorded the shutout in goal for FCD (1-0-1) and had to make just one save thanks to a swarming defense and the absence due to injuries of Los Angeles attackers Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Achilles heel) and Romain Alessandrini (hamstring).

Ziegler took his kick from the spot in the 53rd minute after Los Angeles’ Diego Polenta fouled FC Dallas’ Matt Hedges in the box. Hedges elevated to head a pass that was send into the area, and Polenta kicked him in the side, drawing the whistle.

Acosta made it 2-0 when he stuck in the 61st minute. He rifled a volley from outside the front of the box past Galaxy goalkeeper David Bingham after a pass off the end line by Paxton Pomykal.

FC Dallas outshot the Galaxy (1-1-0) 12-11 and had the only shot on target over the first 45 minutes.

Dominique Badji had two good scoring chances, forcing Bingham into the only save of the half in the 30th minute and then missing wide left in the 36th minute after juking the Los Angeles keeper off his line.

The Galaxy has a chance as well, when Uriel Antuna’s cross through the area found the foot of Rolf Feltscher, who hit it just off the mark in the final minute of the half.

The Galaxy’s 16-year-old midfielder, Efrain Alvarez, had a late chance to get Los Angeles on the board but his scorching shot in the 91st minute was deflected over the crossbar by Gonzalez, allowing Dallas to secure the clean sheet.

Dallas concentrated on keeping the ball and waiting for its chances and earned big edges in total passes (643-341) and possession percentage (64.1 to 35.9).

President Donald Trump called conservative pundit Ann Coulter a “wacky nut job” on Twitter Saturday after continued criticism from Coulter over his inability to complete a southern border wall.

“Wacky Nut Job Ann Coulter, who still hasn’t figured out that, despite all odds and an entire Democrat Party of Far Left Radicals against me (not to mention certain Republicans who are sadly unwilling to fight), I am winning on the Border. Major sections of Wall are being built,” he wrote on Twitter, “and renovated, with MUCH MORE to follow shortly. Tens of thousands of illegals are being apprehended (captured) at the Border and NOT allowed into our Country. With another President, millions would be pouring in. I am stopping an invasion as the Wall gets built.”

Wacky Nut Job @AnnCoulter, who still hasn’t figured out that, despite all odds and an entire Democrat Party of Far Left Radicals against me (not to mention certain Republicans who are sadly unwilling to fight), I am winning on the Border. Major sections of Wall are being built…

….and renovated, with MUCH MORE to follow shortly. Tens of thousands of illegals are being apprehended (captured) at the Border and NOT allowed into our Country. With another President, millions would be pouring in. I am stopping an invasion as the Wall gets built. #MAGA

“This is not Paul Ryan’s fault. It’s not Mitch McConnell’s fault. Trump ran AGAINST the GOP and won. Responsibility is 100% his,” she wrote on Twitter Feb. 15, the same day Trump declared a national emergency.

This is not Paul Ryan’s fault. It’s not Mitch McConnell’s fault. Trump ran AGAINST the GOP and won. Responsibility is 100% his.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did damage control after Trump brushed aside Coulter’s criticism while declaring the national emergency.

People work on the U.S.-Mexico border wall on Feb. 12, 2019 in El Paso, Texas. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

“I don’t think Ann Coulter has any influence over this White House or influence over much of anything, to be honest. I don’t think she did before the president became the president, I don’t think she does now. I just don’t see her as being an influential voice in this country, and certainly not one in this building,” Sanders told Fox News host Dana Perino on Feb. 15.

Trump’s Saturday tweet claiming millions would be “pouring in” over the U.S.-Mexico border under another president came days after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testified before Congress. Illegal arrivals at the southern border are expected to hit 1 million by the end of fiscal year 2019, Nielsen told members of Congress in prepared remarks Wednesday.

The U.S.-Mexico border is nearly 2,000 miles long, and about 650 miles of barriers like fencing or walls can be found in certain stretches along the border. Trump secured about $1.6 billion for border protection, but it is “primarily for fortifying existing border fencing, not expanding the current wall,” reported NPR.

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Bryce Harper walked twice in two at-bats of his Philadelphia Phillies debut, but the Toronto Blue Jays walked away with an 8-7 victory at Clearwater, Fla.

In the game as the designated hitter, Harper took a pair of five-pitch free passes. After his first-inning walk, Rhys Hoskins hit a two-run home run. Harper, who signed a 13-year, $330 million deal with the Phillies, is next expected to play Monday.

“It was just fun to be out there with the guys and be in front of the fan base,” Harper said afterward. “I got some dirt under my cleats and got in the batter’s box again to compete. That’s something I love to do and that’s what it is all about.”

The Blue Jays moved out front in the top of the ninth inning on an RBI double from Andy Burns.

Astros 9, Cardinals 3

Nick Tanielu and Jack Mayfield hit home runs as Houston used a seven-run sixth inning to earn the victory at Jupiter, Fla. Tommy Edman hit a home run for St. Louis, while starter Adam Wainwright threw four scoreless innings.

Braves 6, Tigers 4

Sean Kazmar Jr., Cristian Pache and Jefrey Ramos all hit home runs as Atlanta won at Lakeland, Fla. Christin Stewart drove in two runs for Detroit.

Orioles (ss) 17, Rays 15

Austin Hays hit a home run, his third of the spring, on a day when Baltimore went deep four times to win a slugfest at Port Charlotte, Fla. Tampa Bay went deep three times, including Brandon Lowe’s second of the spring.

Twins 10, Pirates 1

Adam Rosales hit a home run, his third of the spring, as Minnesota hit five homers during a victory at Bradenton, Fla. Corey Dickerson had two of Pittsburgh’s four hits.

Mets 10, Red Sox 2

Pete Alonso hit a home run, his third of the spring, and starter Zack Wheeler threw four scoreless innings as New York won at Fort Myers, Fla. Boston starter Eduardo Rodriguez gave up one run over four innings.

Democrats are trying to flip the scrip on Republicans over Rep. Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitism controversy.

A resolution brought to the floor for a vote on Thursday was supposed to condemn Omar’s anti-Semitic remarks, but instead at the last minute it turned into a broad resolution condemning hate for various groups, which essentially watered down the original resolution.

Republican Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw had harsh words for Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III over H.R.-1, arguing that it would do the opposite of what Kennedy claimed it would.

Kennedy touched off the exchange Friday when he tweeted criticism of the GOP, saying that the Republican Party “stands unified against a bill to strengthen our democracy & increase transparency in our elections.” He referenced the North Carolina seat that currently stands empty due to alleged “ballot-harvesting,” arguing that H.R.-1 would prevent such issues in the future.

As GOP stands unified against a bill to strengthen our democracy & increase transparency in our elections, it’s important to remember that the #NC09 seat is vacant because a GOP candidate tried to steal an election & only failed because local journalists uncovered the truth. #HR1

Crenshaw fired back, pointing out the fact that “even the ACLU” stands opposed to the measure. “TRUTH: it would legalize vote harvesting across the entire country, use your tax $ to do it, and limit free speech drastically. All in the name of ‘democracy,’” Crenshaw tweeted.

You do realize your bill #HR1 would actually make that kind of fraud in #NC09 LEGAL. Right?

TRUTH: it would legalize vote harvesting across the entire country, use your tax $ to do it, and limit free speech drastically. All in the name of “democracy.”

The ACLU was so concerned by the content of H.R.-1 that the organization sent a letter of opposition, saying in part that if passed the bill “would overly burden the speech and associational rights of organizations that engage in issue advocacy.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy argued that the bill constituted “a massive federal government takeover that would undermine the integrity of our elections,” and criticized Democrats for a lack of transparency in bringing the bill before the House.

“H.R. 1 wants to give American taxpayer dollars to political candidates and campaigns, regardless of whether you support them,” McCarthy added.

This bill will give candidates a government match of 6-1. Not a dollar for dollar. No, no, no. For the Politicians Act multiplies it. So if a citizen gives $200, the government gives $1,200. That’s why the new Democrat Socialist Party are so excited about this bill.

That’s why they made it a number one priority. Hard-earned taxpayer money should go to roads, bridges, or to giving a boost to struggling Americans, not to political campaigns.

President Donald Trump signs a Bible as he greets people at Providence Baptist Church in Smiths Station, Ala., Friday, March 8, 2019, during a tour of areas where tornados killed 23 people in Lee County, Ala. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Donald Trump was just doing what he could to raise spirits when he signed Bibles at an Alabama church for survivors of a deadly tornado outbreak, many religious leaders say, though some are offended and others say he could have handled it differently.

Hershael York, dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary School of Theology in Louisville, Ky., said he didn’t have a problem with Trump signing Bibles, like former presidents have, because he was asked and because it was important to the people who were asking.

"Though we don’t have a national faith, there is faith in our nation, and so it’s not at all surprising that people would have politicians sign their Bibles," he said. "Those Bibles are meaningful to them and apparently these politicians are, too."

FILE – In this Jan. 2, 1939, file photo, the old family Bible Frank Murphy used in taking his oath of office in the president’s study in the White House is autographed by President Franklin Roosevelt immediately after ceremony. Watching are Homer Cummings, center, retiring attorney general, and Murphy, right, the new attorney general. Presidents have a long history of signing Bibles, though earlier presidents typically signed them as gifts to send with a spiritual message. (AP Photo, File)

But the Rev. Donnie Anderson, executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, said she was offended by the way Trump scrawled his signature Friday as he autographed Bibles and other things, including hats, and posed for photos. She viewed it, she said, as a "calculated political move" by the Republican president to court his evangelical voting base.

Presidents have a long history of signing Bibles, though earlier presidents typically signed them as gifts to send with a spiritual message. President Ronald Reagan signed a Bible that was sent secretly to Iranian officials in 1986. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the family Bible his attorney general used to take the oath of office in 1939.

It would have been different, Anderson said, if Trump had signed a Bible out of the limelight for someone with whom he had a close connection.

"For me, the Bible is a very important part of my faith, and I don’t think it should be used as a political ploy," she said. "I saw it being used just as something out there to symbolize his support for the evangelical community, and it shouldn’t be used in that way. People should have more respect for Scripture."

York said that he, personally, would not ask a politician to sign a Bible, but that he has been asked to sign Bibles after he preaches. It feels awkward, he said, but he doesn’t refuse.

"If it’s meaningful to them to have signatures in their Bible, I’m willing to do that," he said.

Trump visited Alabama on Friday to survey the devastation and pay respects to tornado victims. The tornado carved a path of destruction nearly a mile wide, killing 23 people, including four children and a couple in their 80s, with 10 victims belonging to a single extended family.

At the Providence Baptist Church in Smiths Station, Ala., the Rev. Rusty Sowell said, the president’s visit was uplifting and will help bring attention to a community that will need a long time to recover.

Before leaving the church, Trump posed for a photograph with a fifth-grade volunteer and signed the child’s Bible, said Ada Ingram, a local volunteer. The president also signed her sister’s Bible, Ingram said. In photos from the visit, Trump is shown signing the cover of a Bible.

Trump should have at least signed inside in a less ostentatious way, said the Rev. Dr. Kevin Cassiday-Maloney.

"It just felt like hubris," said Cassiday-Maloney, pastor at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Fargo, North Dakota. "It almost felt like a desecration of the holy book to put his signature on the front writ large, literally."

He doesn’t think politicians should sign Bibles, he said, because it could be seen as a blurring of church and state and an endorsement of Christianity over other religions.

It would have been out of line if Trump had brought Bibles and given them out, but that wasn’t the case, said James Coffin, executive director of the Interfaith Council of Central Florida.

"Too much is being made out of something that doesn’t deserve that kind of attention," he said.

Bill Leonard, the founding dean and professor of divinity emeritus at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, N.C., woke up to Facebook posts Saturday morning by former students who were upset about Trump signing the Bibles because they don’t view him as an appropriate example of spiritual guidance.

But, Leonard said, it’s important to remember that signing Bibles is an old tradition, particularly in southern churches.

Leonard said he would have viewed it as more problematic if the signings were done at a political rally. He doesn’t see how Trump could have refused at the church.

"It would’ve been worse if he had said no because it would’ve seemed unkind, and this was at least one way he could show his concern along with his visit," he said. "In this setting, where tragedy has occurred and where he comes for this brief visit, we need to have some grace about that for these folks."

“I expect because of the way [CNN] went after Nicholas so viciously, that the claim for his reputational damage will be higher than it was against The Washington Post,” Wood told Fox News host Mark Levin.

The suit will likely be issued Monday or Tuesday, Wood told Levin. Wood said that Sandmann did “absolutely nothing wrong.”

“But you have a situation where CNN couldn’t resist the idea that here’s a guy with a young boy, that Make America Great Again cap on. So they go after him,” he said, adding, “The CNN folks were online on Twitter at 7 a.m. retweeting the little one-minute propaganda piece that had been put out. … They’re out there right away going after this young boy. And they maintain it for at least two days. Why didn’t they stop and just take an hour and look through the Internet and find the truth and then report it? Maybe do that before you report the lies.”

Nicholas Sandmann, 16, a student from Covington Catholic High School stands in front of Native American activist Nathan Phillips in Washington, U.S., in this still image from a Jan. 18, 2019 video by Kaya Taitano. Kaya Taitano/Social Media/via REUTERS/File Photo

Wood said he has a team of “young, smart lawyers” working on the potential suit.

“I’ve got some young, smart lawyers that are working hard as we can,” he told Levin. “Double-checking, and listen, when we file complaints, we’ve investigated it because we want to get it right. Maybe CNN can learn from that.”

“The Friday night efforts by the Post to whitewash its wrongdoing were untimely, grossly insufficient and did little more than perpetuate the lies it published – lies that will haunt and adversely impact Nicholas for the rest of his life,” part of the statement read.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. women’s national soccer team coach Jill Ellis threw her support behind her players on Saturday after all 28 members of the reigning World Cup champions’ squad filed a suit against U.S. Soccer for gender discrimination.

The lawsuit alleges that the women players were paid less than their male counterparts despite performing better, and were provided with inferior playing and training conditions.

“I’m definitely in support,” Ellis told reporters, adding that the players called her before announcing the lawsuit but did not discuss it with her ahead of filing it.

Ellis, who as head coach is employed by the U.S. soccer federation, is in a unique position as both a representative of the players and the athletic body targeted in the lawsuit.

“(I) recognize moments where we have to continue to push the envelope,” Ellis said. “It’s not hard to navigate because I’m in that world and my players know I support them.”

The lawsuit rekindled the debate around gender pay equality and garnered the support of sports’ biggest stars, including 23-times tennis grand slam champion Serena Williams.

“The pay gap has been there for a very long time. And this is across all industries. And soccer was no different,” said two-times gold medalist Aly Wagner, who was part of the 2008 Olympic team with plaintiffs Tobin Heath and Carli Lloyd.

“I know what we went through when I was playing,” Wagner said. “Things weren’t always equitable.”

The U.S. women’s national soccer team, a stalwart of American athletics with three World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals to their name, will enter this year’s women’s World Cup in June among the favorites to win the tournament.

Leslie Osborne, who played for the U.S. women’s team in the 2007 World Cup, said the suit was overdue.

“(The players) know that they have leverage going into this next women’s World Cup,” Osborne said.

“I think the fact that they are doing this – and every single player is doing it together – is so strong and their voice is going to be heard regardless,” she added.

“And people from all over the world are watching this team go through this.”

In some states, you can’t be served alcohol if you are lawfully carrying a pistol. In some states, you can’t even be in a bar if you’re carrying, unless it happens to be a bar and grill and/or sports bar type place that’s basically a restaurant but keeps bar hours. In other states, the law is a little more nebulous; statutes will state that a person can’t be intoxicated with firearms but doesn’t say you can’t have a few.

You probably shouldn’t be drinking at all if you’re carrying. Granted, most of the people who read this are adults (though some of the folks in the comments section may be an exception; you know who you are!) and can make their own decisions. But this is a no-brainer.

They tell you the same thing in any hunter’s safety course. Don’t drink and hit the field. After shooting hours and you have something to celebrate – or have to take the sting out of a defeat – then it’s okay, so long as your shotgun, rifle or what-have-you has been unloaded and put away.

It’s not exactly a secret that disinhibition is an effect of alcohol consumption. It sets in bit-by-bit; after a few, you start thinking that maybe people really would like to hear “Sweet Home Alabama” for the 10th time that night and the 750,000th time in their lifetime already. (Look, it’s overplayed; we could stand to hear their deeper cuts by now, some of which are actually pretty good.) After one’s BAC climbs into the double digits, a person can go from being stupid-but-merely-annoying to dangerously stupid.

A recent incident demonstrates many small lessons writ large. One Andrew Webler-Norman, according to the Akron Beacon-Journal, went to a bowling alley to roll a few frames on the evening of Mar. 1, but ended up putting a toe over the line and entered a world of pain. While bowling, Webler-Norman adjusted his pistol and holster, causing a discharge that struck his friend in the foot.

The friend went to the hospital. Webler-Norman went to jail, charged with negligent assault, possessing a firearm in a prohibited establishment, using a weapon while intoxicated, discharging a firearm in or near a prohibited location (all misdemeanors) and tampering with evidence, a felony.

Webler-Norman has a carry permit and – presuming he did commit all those actions – should have known better or left the gun at home. Nothing wrong with having a few oat sodas and rolling a few but not if you’re packing. Granted, he is innocent until proven guilty, but it sure don’t look good. We’re also not holding out hope for the tape deck or the Creedence.

There are other examples, of course.

For instance, according to CBS Boston, one Jason Root of Woburn, Mass., was arrested after rear-ending another motorist on the freeway and attempted to run the other motorist, who gave his name as “Bryan,” off the road. Root exited the vehicle, and was alleged to have pulled a gun on Bryan. Bryan wisely gunned it and made good an escape while calling the cops.

Root, who had a license to carry, was field-tested, which he failed, and booked on suspicion of DUI along with everything else you can imagine.

Granted, most people don’t need to be told these things. This also isn’t to say that disaster will ensue if you have one beer with dinner or lunch while carrying, and plenty of people have chosen to do some pretty awful things whilst stone cold sober.

Instead, this is to say that drinking while carrying is generally a bad idea and that we really don’t have to hear “Sweet Home Alabama” quite so often.

Forward C.J. Sapong equalized on a header in the fifth minute of extra time Saturday afternoon, allowing the Chicago Fire to salvage a 1-1 draw with visiting Orlando City SC despite being down to 10 men.

It appeared the Lions were headed for a 1-0 win until the Fire counter-attacked quickly after an Orlando City offsides infraction, getting the game-tying goal on a cross by substitute Przemyslaw Frankowski that found the head of Sapong.

The last-minute dramatics prevented an 0-2 start for the Fire, who were beaten 2-1 by the Los Angeles Galaxy last week in the opener.

Orlando City, which had opened its season with a 2-2 draw against New York City, tied for the second straight game.

Dom Dwyer turned a Chicago turnover and defensive miscommunication into the Tigers’ only goal in the 47th minute of the match.

The Lions caught a break when Nani stole a misplayed ball near midfield and chipped a pass over the head of the Chicago defense. When Fire goalie David Ousted and the last defender hesitated in clearing the bouncing ball, Dwyer swooped in and poked it over Ousted’s head for Orlando’s only goal of the match.

Dwyer had entered the game as a substitute in the 21st minute after teammate Tesho Akindele suffered an injury.

The Chicago comeback occurred after it was relegated to playing with 10 men after Jorge Corrales received a red card in the 64th minute, which was given upon video review of a late slide tackle just outside the box.

Chicago outshot the visitors 7-2 in the match, but just 3-2 in shots on target.

Orlando goalie Brian Rowe made two saves, while Chicago’s Ousted had one.

The Fire had won their last three matches against the Lions. They remained unbeaten (3-0-4) against Orlando City since 2015.

The two Eastern Conference rivals don’t meet again until the season finale on Oct. 6.

In response to the president’s Friday morning announcement that he was on his way to Alabama, Lieu wrote in a since-deleted tweet, “WE ARE IN THE THIRD WEEK OF A NATIONAL EMERGENCY! Can you feel the emergency? Is this why [Trump] is going to Alabama, because we need to build a Wall along Alabama’s southern border? Oh wait, I just looked at the map ….” Lieu concluded his comment with the hashtag, “#FridayMorning Thoughts”.

U.S. President Donald Trump is hugged by a resident who survived a tornado, as First Lady Melania Trump stands by, in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S., March 8, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Theiler

“I have concluded based on Twitter comments I received,” Lieu began, “that my last tweet was inappropriate. I understand the purpose now of the President’s visit to Alabama. I apologize and am going to delete my tweet.”

I have concluded based on Twitter comments I received that my last tweet was inappropriate. I understand the purpose now of the President’s visit to Alabama. I apologize and am going to delete my tweet.

The Los Angeles Chargers released starting safety Jahleel Addae, the team announced on Saturday.

Addae recorded 75 tackles while starting all 16 games last season. He started 59 of 80 games played in six seasons with the Chargers, recording two interceptions and 4.5 sacks.

–Tight end Dwayne Allen reportedly has agreed to a two-year, $7 million with the Miami Dolphins, according to the NFL Network.

Allen, who had 13 receptions for 113 yards in two seasons with New England, recently was cut by the Patriots. He will be playing for new coach Brian Flores, the former New England defensive coordinator.

–The New Orleans Saints agreed to a three-year, $9 million contract with safety Chris Banjo, according to the NFL Network. Banjo had two interceptions last season but primarily has worked on special teams during six NFL seasons with the Green Bay Packers (2013-16) and Saints (2016-18).

–Defensive tackle Michael Pierce and linebacker Patrick Onwuasor are expected to receive second-round tenders from the Baltimore Ravens, according to the NFL Network. Both players will be restricted free agents.

FILE PHOTO: A masked demonstrator shouts slogans against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government during a protest to mark International Women’s Day at Central American University (UCA) in Managua, Nicaragua March 8, 2019. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas/File Photo

March 9, 2019

By Ismael Lopez

MANAGUA (Reuters) – Nicaragua’s government said on Saturday it would release prisoners rounded up in months of protests and implement electoral reforms, as talks continue with the opposition to end the country’s worst political crisis in three decades.

At least 320 people have been killed, many more wounded, and several hundred detained in a crackdown on protests that were triggered last April by a social security reform but quickly swelled into a national call to oust President Daniel Ortega.

Government talks resumed with the opposition last month after a first attempt at agreement fell apart, but have foundered so far on opposition demands that imprisoned protesters be freed and electoral reforms implemented. The Catholic Church, who had been acting as mediator, pulled out of the discussions on Friday.

The opposition Civic Alliance had said it would consult with its popular bases over the weekend on whether it should continue with the talks. It did not give any immediate reaction to Saturday’s government announcement.

In a statement, the government announced a series of agenda points it said it would take to the opposition representatives.

It said it was committed to the “release of prisoners in the context of criminal acts that occurred as of April 2018 against the state of Nicaragua, who have not yet been tried.”

The government freed 100 prisoners last month, just before the start of the new talks.

Rights groups responded by calling for the release of an additional 566 people they said were still incarcerated for their alleged role in the protests, including several prominent journalists and rights activists.

The impoverished Central American country is suffering its bloodiest crisis since an 11-year civil war ended in 1990, badly damaging the economy and sending at least 30,000 people into exile.

Critics of Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla who first ruled between 1979 and 1990, say his government has steadily eroded legitimate opposition, allowing him to consolidate power in his latest stint as president since 2007.

Saturday’s statement said that the government would implement electoral reforms ahead of a 2021 presidential vote, as recommended by the Organization of American States (OAS). It also called for the “international community to suspend all sanctions against the Nicaraguan people.”

The U.S. government has imposed sanctions against Nicaraguan officials whom it accuses of abuses and undermining democracy, expanding them in November to include Ortega’s wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.

Ortega has in the past denied holding political prisoners. His government has said the protests were an attempted coup, that the judiciary is independent and that those behind bars committed crimes.

The government also released a joint statement with the OAS on Saturday, which said the OAS was considering sending a representative to the talks.

Mounsef al-Mkhayar, 22, an Islamic state fighter of Morrocan descent and Italian citizenship, gestures during an interview with Reuters, in Qamishli, Syria March 9, 2019. REUTERS/Issam Abdallah

March 9, 2019

By Ellen Francis

QAMISHLI, Syria (Reuters) – An Islamic State fighter detained in Syria urged Italy on Saturday to let him come home to start a new life, saying said he had abandoned the self-styled jihadist “caliphate” after growing disillusioned with its rulers.

Mounsef al-Mkhayar, a 22-year-old of Moroccan descent who grew up in Italy, spoke to Reuters in his first interview since surrendering to the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) two months ago.

He has been in prison since emerging from Baghouz, a tiny village in eastern Syria where the SDF is poised to wipe out the last vestige of Islamic State rule – which once spanned a third of Iraq and Syria.

Mkhayar gave an account of growing chaos among jihadists on the brink of defeat, and of disputes in the ranks as top commanders fled Syria.

But he said Islamic State was also planning for the next phase, smuggling out hundreds of men to set up sleeper cells across Iraq and eastern Syria: “They said ‘We must get revenge’.”

Mkhayar is one of thousands from all over the world who were drawn to the promise of an ultra-radical Sunni Islamist utopia overriding national borders. Kurdish security officials identified him as Italian and he said he holds Italian citizenship.

“I wish to return to Italy to my family and friends … for them to accept and help me to live a new life,” said Mkhayar, who walks on crutches after shelling injured his leg. “I just want to get out of this movie, I’m tired.”

FROM MILAN TO MAYADIN

However, Mkhayar was sentenced to eight years in jail by a Milan court in 2017 for spreading Islamic State propaganda and trying to recruit Italians to its cause, Italian media say. As a result, he is likely to have to serve this sentence if he does return to Italy.

Reuters interviewed him at a security office in northern Syria in the presence of an SDF official.

As it nears victory, the SDF has struggled with the dilemma of holding fighters who traveled from abroad to join Islamic State along with women and children.

Before the final assault on Baghouz, the Kurdish-led SDF said it had around 800 foreign militants in jails and 2,000 of their wives and children in camps. Since then, the numbers have ballooned.

The SDF wants them sent back to where they came from. But foreign governments generally do not want to receive citizens who may be hard to legally prosecute, and who pledged allegiance to a caliphate that left behind of a trail of butchery.

Once an atheist with an affinity for rap music and a dream of moving to America, Mkhayar joined Islamic State at 18.

He said he had spent most of his life in Milan with an aunt he calls his mother, before being placed in a home for troubled youths overseen by an Italian priest. He spent a month in prison on drugs charges.

Then he began immersing himself in Islamic State videos on YouTube and speaking to recruiters on Facebook. It took him only a month to decide to move to Syria with a friend four years ago.

His friend was later killed on the battlefield. After military and religious training, Mkhayar fought on various fronts. As Islamic State lost its Syrian headquarters at Raqqa, he left for Mayadin on the Euphrates river in Iraq, then moved further east across the desert, towards the Iraqi border.

“WE’RE GETTING OUT”

Amid a string of military defeats in eastern Syria, Islamic State leaders were in disarray, killing off rival clerics and commanders known as emirs, Mkhayar said.

He said he had tried to quit the fighting but had been imprisoned, and then dispatched back to the frontlines as attacks intensified.

He wound up in Baghouz, where he said the jihadists were split between wanting to give up or fight to the death.

Mkhayar said his wife, a Syrian Kurdish woman from Kobani whom he had married three years ago, helped convince him to leave.

Mkhayar said he could not sleep thinking about his wife and two daughters in a camp for displaced people in another part of northeast Syria. His wife is due to give birth in a month.

He said he still believed in the idea of a caliphate for Muslims, but accused Islamic State rulers of governing their land like “a mafia”, seeking only to make money and violating their own rules with impunity.

Commanders had stolen money and fled to Turkey, Iraq or Western Europe while ordering people to stay and defend Islam, he said.

“This is my belief and I won’t change it, but here in Islamic State, in reality this doesn’t exist … There is no justice,” he said.

“Honestly, I came here too fast … When I arrived, I found another story.”

(Additional reporting by Issam Abdallah in Qamishli, and Omar Fahmy in Cairo; Writing by Ellen Francis; Editing by Tom Perry and Kevin Liffey)

But “a ton” appears to be three — and the claims against her don’t appear to be “random.”

The Coolidge Reagan Foundation, a nonprofit, filed an ethics complaint last week alleging that Ocasio-Cortez had used House resources for personal means when she allowed her boyfriend to obtain a House.gov email address. The complaint also alleged that she obtained the email address by falsely listing him as a staff member.

Ocasio-Cortez claimed at the time that it was perfectly normal for spouses of House members to have email addresses that would allow them access to the member’s calendar. She made no comment regarding the claim that she had falsely designated her own boyfriend as a staff member.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) speaks with Democratic women House members during a photo-op recognizing suffragettes before the State of Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., February 5, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Just a few days earlier, the National Legal and Policy Center had filed a complaint with the FEC alleging an incestuous relationship between Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign and Justice Democrats — a PAC which was at the time controlled by the congresswoman and her chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti — in addition to possible campaign finance violations.

It appears that Respondents orchestrated an extensive off-the-books operation to make hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenditures in support of multiple candidates for federal office. The relationship between the Respondents appears to be incestuous, with the likelihood that they were aware, or should have been aware, of the sweeping and apparently illegal nature of the enterprise.

Former FEC commissioner Brad Smith told The Daily Caller News Foundation that if Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti had maintained control of the Justice Democrats PAC and that the PAC had operated in affiliation with her 2018 campaign, she could be subject to “massive reporting violations, probably at least some illegal contribution violations exceeding the lawful limits.”

If the facts as alleged are true, and a candidate had control over a PAC that was working to get that candidate elected, then that candidate is potentially in very big trouble and may have engaged in multiple violations of federal campaign finance law, including receiving excessive contributions.

A third complaint was filed by The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, which alleged that Ocasio-Cortez’s social media use may violate House ethics rules. At issue is her use of a political Instagram account — which contains direct links to her House Instagram account and includes a link for political contributions — includes posts of official video footage from the House floor.

The FEC has not yet indicated whether or not the alleged campaign finance violations would be investigated.

Left-wing presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., told a crowd in Iowa on Saturday that his agenda, once declared radical by establishment politicians, is now being promoted by Democratic candidates across the country.

“They are ideas that Democratic candidates from school board to president are now campaigning on,” he said, as he listed his policies on everything from health care to climate change.

Sanders was widely seen as a far-left candidate in 2016 when he unsuccessfully challenged the more centrist Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, but since President Trump’s election in 2016, the party has moved increasingly to the left, and many of the 2020 presidential hopefuls have adopted a number of policies that the self-described Democratic socialist was pushing in 2016.

“The ideas, the agenda we were talking about then were considered by establishment politicians and mainstream media to be radical and extreme. Remember that?” he told the crowd in Des Moines.

“So we came here and we said that we need to raise minimum wage to a living wage,” he told the crowd. “But the establishment said,‘Bernie that’s a radical idea, you can’t double the federal minimum wage.’"

“We said guaranteeing health care to all is a right not a privilege," he said. “They said, ‘Too radical, too radical, not something the American people want.’"

He also cited his policies on investing $1 trillion into rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure and by “aggressively” fighting climate change.

Sanders’ comments tap into the broader sense that the party is lurching to the left on an array of ideas – everything from how to combat climate change to reparations for black Americans. Top 2020 candidates have embraced ideas such as Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal, ideas that were once relegated to the party’s fringe.

Candidates including Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.J., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have signed onto Sanders’ "Medicare-for-all" bill. Both Sanders and Harris have stated that their plans would end most private health care plans.

Sanders made similar comments on Thursday in Council Bluffs, Iowa, reminding a crowd there that he was the original champion of many of the ideas that are now being seen in most 2020 Democratic candidates’ platforms.

"Shock of all shocks, those very same ideas are now supported by candidates – Democratic candidates – for president," he said.

Left-wing presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., told a crowd in Iowa on Saturday that his agenda, once declared radical by establishment politicians, is now being promoted by Democratic candidates across the country.

“They are ideas that Democratic candidates from school board to president are now campaigning on,” he said, as he listed his policies on everything from health care to climate change.

Sanders was widely seen as a far-left candidate in 2016 when he unsuccessfully challenged the more centrist Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, but since President Trump’s election in 2016, the party has moved increasingly to the left, and many of the 2020 presidential hopefuls have adopted a number of policies that the self-described "democratic socialist" was pushing in 2016.

“The ideas, the agenda we were talking about then were considered by establishment politicians and mainstream media to be radical and extreme. Remember that?” he told the crowd in Des Moines.

“So we came here and we said that we need to raise minimum wage to a living wage,” he told the crowd. “But the establishment said ‘Bernie that’s a radical idea, you can’t double the federal minimum wage.’"

“We said guaranteeing healthcare to all is a right not a privilege," he said. “They said, ‘Too radical, too radical, not something the American people want.’"

He also cited his policies on investing a trillion dollars into rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure and by “aggressively” fighting climate change.

Sanders’ comments tap into the broader sense that the party is lurching to the left on an array of ideas – everything from how to combat climate change to reparations for black Americans. Top 2020 candidates have embraced ideas such as Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal, ideas that were once relegated to the party’s fringe.

Candidates including Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.J., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have signed onto Sanders’ "Medicare-for-all" bill. Both Sanders and Harris have stated that their plans would end most private health care plans.

Sanders made similar comments on Thursday in Council Bluffs, Iowa, reminding a crowd there that he was the original champion of many of the ideas that are now being seen in most 2020 Democratic candidates’ platforms.

"Shock of all shocks, those very same ideas are now supported by candidates – Democratic candidates – for president," he said.

FILE PHOTO: Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir speaks during a press conference after the swearing-in of the prime minister and first vice president at the presidential palace in Khartoum, Sudan March 2, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo

March 9, 2019

By Khalid Abdelaziz

CAIRO (Reuters) – Nine female Sudanese protesters were sentenced on Saturday to 20 lashes and one month in prison for rioting, the Democratic Alliance of Lawyers said, a day after President Omar al-Bashir ordered the release of all women detained in anti-government demonstrations.

Bashir declared a state of emergency last month that produced a raft of measures including the establishment of emergency courts across the country such as the one in Khartoum that convicted the nine women.

The Democratic Alliance of Lawyers, part of the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, the main organizer of the protests, has said more than 800 people have been tried in the emergency courts.

Protests against Bashir and his National Congress Party have taken place almost daily since Dec. 19 in towns and cities all over Sudan, in what has become the most sustained popular challenge to him since he took power in a coup 30 years ago.

On Friday, International Women’s Day, Bashir ordered the release of all women arrested in connection with the demonstrations.

Hundreds turned out for protests in Khartoum and Omdurman that day, undeterred by the emergency measures.

Bashir has also dissolved the central government, replaced state governors with security officials, expanded the powers of security forces and banned unlicensed public gatherings.

The Sudanese Professionals’ Association called for fresh demonstrations in Omdurman on Sunday.

The Associated Press reported Saturday that Young was fired for from his development officer job for his “poor performance” and “not demonstrating significant and sustained improvement in the performance of (his) job responsibilities and failing to maintain standards of conduct suitable and acceptable to the university.”

The same report indicated that he missed work and didn’t stay in touch with his superiors. According to Darren Rovell, the former college star was being paid $100,000 annually to work with the program.

It’s not a great look for a guy that was once considered a can’t-miss QB prospect.

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Vince Young is arguably the greatest player in the history of Texas football, and now they won’t even employ him.

He must have burned some major bridges on his way out the door. It’s very common for athletic departments to hook up former stars with jobs. To lose one of those jobs is actually borderline impressive.

It should be interesting to see what Young does next. It looks like door at the University of Texas has officially been shut for him.

The Muslim congresswoman, who has seemingly split the Democratic Party in two over her recurring remarks that many consider anti-Semitic, was the center of media attention again Friday in a story that quoted her shredding Obama as a phony. As outrage increased, Omar attempted to haul back her comments by suggesting she had never said those things — but audio tape she posted in an attempt to defend herself proved that she had, Fox News reported Saturday.

U.S. President Donald Trump (L) greets former President Barack Obama after being sworn in as the 45th president of the United States on the West front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., Jan. 20, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

“We can’t be only upset with Trump. … His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies. They just were more polished than he was,” Politico quotes Omar as saying. “And that’s not what we should be looking for anymore. We don’t want anybody to get away with murder because they are polished. We want to recognize the actual policies that are behind the pretty face and the smile.” (RELATED: Rep. Ilhan Omar Traveled With Pro-Communist, Anti-American Peace Group)

Following intense media scrutiny, Omar went back to Twitter to say she had been a victim of media manipulation, tweeting: “Exhibit A of how reporters distort words. I’m an Obama fan! I was saying how Trump is different from Obama, and why we should focus on policy not politics. This is why I always tape my interviews,” she fumed, attaching an audio file of the interview.

Politico journalist Tim Alberta tweeted that Omar “has released an audio of what she said about Trump and Obama. She claims she was quoted out of context and that she’s an Obama fan. Here’s the transcript. You be the judge.”

Exhibit A of how politicians use the media as a straw man to avoid owning what they said.

Your tape…supports what I wrote 100%. So does my longer tape. It’s beyond dispute.

In the audio, Omar argues that Obama and Trump are two sides of the same coin.

“You know, I will talk about the family separation or caging of kids and then people will point out that this was wrong – I mean this was Obama. And you know I’ll say something about the droning of countries around the world and people will say that was Obama. And all of that is very true. What is happening now is very different. A lot is happening with secrecy. It’s happening with the feel-good polished way of talking about it.”

FILE PHOTO: Grammy-winning R&B star R. Kelly arrives for a child support hearing at a Cook County courthouse in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Kamil Krzaczynski/File Photo

March 9, 2019

By Gina Cherelus

(Reuters) – Singer R. Kelly was released from a Chicago jail on Saturday after he paid more than $161,000 in child support to an ex-wife, police said, ending his second incarceration in two weeks after a prior arrest on sex assault charges.

The performer, 52, was arrested on Wednesday over the unpaid support for three children he has with Andrea Lee. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office had said he would have to pay the full amount to be freed.

Sam Randall, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said in a phone interview on Saturday that the source of the payment was unclear, noting that the name section of the bond slip was left blank.

“Anonymity in this situation is pretty rare,” Randall said. “Typically that section of the form is filled out.”

Celebrity website TMZ, which cited sources close to Kelly as saying an unidentified benefactor helped him, reported that he was met by screaming fans as he left the jail.

“I promise we’re gonna straighten all this out,” TMZ quoted Kelly as telling the group as he walked away. “That’s all I can say right now. I love my fans.”

Last month, Kelly was arrested and pleaded not guilty to charges he had sexually assaulted three teenage girls and a fourth woman. He has denied similar abuse allegations for decades. In 2008, the singer was tried on child pornography charges and found not guilty.

Kelly bailed out of jail on the sexual assault charges on Feb. 25 and had since complained of financial difficulties, saying in an interview with CBS that “so many people” had access to his bank account and had stolen from him.

In the interview, he also tearfully and angrily rejected allegations that he had sex with underage girls.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Richard Chang)

Photo shows Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., listening to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech at the Capitol last month. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

A social media post insinuating Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Mich., was a terrorist threat was recently shared and liked by two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigators, according to reports this week.

The post described the Muslim-American lawmaker as a “Trojan horse” who came to the U.S. because of a “refugee outbreak” during the Obama administration, ABC News reported Thursday.

The post included a misleading video clip that purported to show Omar admitting to taking “terrorism classes,” according to the report.

A senior Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent, Leslie Derewonko, shared the post on his LinkedIn page, the news network reported. “And this is what represents America,” Derewonko said in a caption accompanying the post, according to ABC.

Jerry Templet, deputy special agent in charge of HSI’s San Francisco office, liked the post, it was reported.

HSI is ICE’s investigative branch.

Derewonko has also used LinkedIn to comment on posts expressing anti-immigrant views, BuzzFeed News reported Thursday.

“It is alarming that a public official charged with executing our immigration policies endorses such toxic views of refugees, Muslims, and an elected official,” Dalia Mogahed, the director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, told BuzzFeed.

ICE representatives told BuzzFeed and ABC News that it was conducting a review to determine if the content violated departmental policies.

Omar’s recent remarks criticizing Israel prompted critics to deem her an anti-Semite. Those comments also spurred a vote in the House this week condemning "anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism and other forms of bigotry."

A foreign tourist, with the Byzantine-era monument of Hagia Sophia in the background, takes pictures at Sultanahmet square in Istanbul, Turkey April 21, 2018. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

March 9, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany changed its travel advice for visitors to Turkey on Saturday, warning its citizens that they risked arrest for expressing opinions that would be tolerated at home but may not be by Turkish authorities.

“It cannot be ruled out … that the Turkish government will take further action against representatives of German media and civil society organizations,” an updated Foreign Ministry travel advisory read.

“Statements, which are covered by the German legal understanding of the freedom of expression, can lead in Turkey to occupational restrictions and criminal proceedings.”

The advice, which a ministry spokeswoman confirmed was updated on Saturday, noted that several European, including German, journalists had been denied accreditation in Turkey without explanation. In the last two years German nationals have also been increasingly arbitrarily detained, it said.

Turkish authorities are suspicious about any connections to the network of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says orchestrated a 2016 attempted coup, the ministry said.

But it added that any holidaymakers who had taken part in meetings abroad of organizations banned in Turkey risked being detained, as did Germans who made, or endorsed, statements on social media critical of the Turkish government.

Recently, I have found myself having to explain to people I meet for the first time why I decided to pursue a public service career as a Republican. Often I anticipate their curiosity with a self-effacing introductory comment like “I’ve been out of Congress for 25 years, so you can’t blame me for what’s going on!” The questioning has reminded me how and why I made this major decision and how times and parties have changed.

It’s a truism recognized from generation to generation: young people are generally more idealistic than their elders who have lived long enough to experience cynicism. That was certainly true during my formative years. I saw public service as a higher calling.John F. Kennedy was a young charismatic president who attracted many young Americans to public service — and some of us even turned out to be Republicans!

During my years in graduate school at NYU and law school at Washington University in St. Louis, I kept close tabs on politics in my home state of Missouri. Always an avid newspaper reader, my hometown newspaper, the Kansas City Star covered political comings and goings in depth as did the two St. Louis dailies. From the Star pages I read lengthy features on Kansas City’s organized crime families, union corruption and their close association and political alliances with the state and local Democratic Party. I decided then that I would look to the only alternative available in which to pursue a political career, and that was with the GOP.

The Democratic coalition at that time was made up of white lower and middle class families (like mine), conservative small businessmen, farmers as well as many minority groups. It gave the party of FDR and local hero Harry Truman a secure lock on local and state politics. So, it was by default that the Missouri Republican Party became THE reform party in the state. With no successes state wide in 40 years, the party was an obvious choice for young people to join who didn’t want to play ball with the special interests or the vestiges of the Pendergast political machine.

Republican success came to Missouri in 1968 with John Danforth’s election as attorney general. Jack’s successful campaign marks the beginning of the modern Republican Party in Missouri.

Nationally, the party was being torn apart by the moderate-conservative split personified by Sen. Barry Goldwater’s candidacy for president and Nelson Rockefeller’s moderate to liberal governing philosophy as governor of New York. These differences were on the path to being settled with the election of Richard Nixon in 1968 and fully put to rest with the Reagan presidency. Most Republicans were mainstream conservatives or center-right moderates.

During my 25-year political career, the national Republican Party advocated for a strong national defense against communism and its nation-state followers; it was pro-business, pro-trade, anti-protectionist.

Republicans were for limited government and maximum opportunities. Republicans were generally better educated. They believed in controlling government spending and supported balancing the federal budget. We believed Lincoln’s adage: “the government should do for the people, what the people cannot do for themselves.” Republicans appointed to be federal judges including those taking a seat on the Supreme Court were known as strict constructionists, interpreting the Constitution in a more restrictive fashion based upon the actual words contained in it.

Today, the political party that still calls itself the Republican Party, through its actions and rhetoric, opposes every single one of these tenets. That has forced me to become a political independent.

The Democratic Party has also undergone a realignment of its views and followers.

In many ways the two parties have changed places in their philosophy and have, therefore, attracted a different type of membership. Democrats used to be seen as the party of lunch pail, union, working class families who got a factory job or performed manual labor immediately after leaving high school.

Exit polling results from the 2018 congressional election reflect a different make-up. Democrats today often have a higher education with a large majority of women identifying themselves as voting Democratic, while Republicans show a higher proportion of non-college men have moved to the GOP. In many states there is a split among urban Democrats and rural Republicans just as there is between the liberal East and West Coasts and the conservative Midwest and the South.

In the past, I considered it an unfair accusation that Republicans were considered the wealthy class and made up the majority of the “country club set.” Now the GOP has its share of low-income voters while many in the Democratic Party are now among the more affluent. These are, of course, wide generalizations with many exceptions and caveats to them.

As Gerald F. Seib recently noted, “The odd constituency out in the realigned world may be the business community, which now finds neither party particularly in sync with its free-market view of the world.” If he is correct, then business leaders must be prepared to look beyond their traditional corporate self-interests and begin to address the systemic problems facing our democracy.

Tom Coleman represented Missouri as a Republican in the United States House from 1976-1993. He has taught as an adjunct professor at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and at American University in Washington, D.C.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.

FILE PHOTO: The Interserve logo is seen on a flag at Interserve offices in Twyford, Britain January 17, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

March 9, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Banks for Interserve have lined up a so-called pre-pack administration that will wipe out existing shareholders but enable the troubled outsourcer to keep operating, a person familiar with the situation said on Saturday.

Seeking to avoid a collapse like rival Carillion, the plan would come into force if investors reject Interserve’s debt-for-equity swap at a vote on Friday.

The British company, which employs 68,000 people globally to provide cleaning and building services, is fighting for survival after struggling to service debt due to project delays, a weak construction market and a mistaken push into the energy-from-waste market.

A pre-pack administration enables the company to sell itself or its assets before it appoints administrators who take over the running of the business to protect creditors.

Interserve struck a deal in February under which existing shareholders would retain 5 percent of the group while creditors take control.

However its biggest shareholder Coltrane Asset Management has objected to the deal and a vote will take place on Friday.

Interserve declined to comment but the company’s chairman, Glyn Barker, told the Telegraph newspaper on Saturday that Coltrane would be to blame if the company has to opt for a pre-pack deal.

“If we lose that vote because of Coltrane, then it will be because of Coltrane that shareholders get nothing out of this,” he said.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih said on Sunday that China and the U.S. would lead healthy global demand for oil this year but that it would be too early to change OPEC+ output policy at the group’s next meeting in April.

OPEC and its allies will meet in Vienna on April 17-18 and another gathering is scheduled for June 25-26.

On Jan. 1, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, along with Russia and other non-members — the OPEC+ alliance — began new production cuts to avoid a supply glut that threatened to soften prices.

The group agreed to reduce supply by 1.2 million barrels per day for six months.

OPEC’s share is 800,000 bpd, to be delivered by 11 members — all except Iran, Libya and Venezuela, which are exempt from cuts. The baseline for the reduction was in most cases their output in October 2018.

Army veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth took the new U.S. Army fitness test — which puts soldiers through a broad range of physical challenges — and shared his results on Saturday.

WATCH:

[embedded content]

Hegseth, who served from 2003-2014, admitted going into the test that he had not really been training. Major General Malcolm B. Frost — who currently serves as Commanding General, Center for Initial Military Training at Fort Eustis — chuckled and said, “You’re gonna get smoked.”

The grueling test includes six events, all undertaken consecutively and with minimal rest between tasks.

Deadlift – A three-repetition maximum deadlift

Standing Power Throw – Soldiers must throw a 10-pound medicine ball as far as possible over the head behind them

Hand-Raised Push-ups – Requires soldiers to come to a rest on the ground and raise their hands between repetitions

A 250-Meter Sprint, Drag and Carry – Requires soldiers to run in after another soldier and drag or carry them to safety

A Two-Mile Run – This is the only portion of the fitness test that remains the same

Hegseth also asked Frost about one other notable change to the test — there is no longer any separation between the standards for male and female soldiers.

The general’s response was simple. “Combat doesn’t discriminate,” he said.

2020 presidential hopeful Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., on Saturday addressed the bizarre story of her eating a salad with a comb then told a staffer to clean it, saying she was "doing a mom thing" – as she sought again to combat multiple reports of her mistreating her staff.

“The comb story was me, sort of doing a mom thing. I didn’t have a fork, I used a comb to eat a salad very briefly on a plane,” she said at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas.

Klobuchar was addressing an anecdote, reported in The New York Times, in which an aide neglected to get plastic utensils at an airport in 2008. According to the Times, Klobuchar chastised the aide, then ate the salad using a comb, before handing the comb to the aide and telling him to clean it.

The story has become a more humorous example of more serious allegations of staff mistreatment aimed at the senator, who announced her 2020 intentions last month.

A HuffPost report, citing multiple staffers, found last month that Klobuchar was “well-known” for calling prospective employers of her current staff and shutting down job opportunities. Klobuchar’s office called the claim “completely false.”

According to a Buzzfeed News report, numerous staffers said Klobuchar routinely sent late-night emails and berated subordinates over minor details and missteps. The report also said, "One aide was accidentally hit with a flying binder, according to someone who saw it happen, though the staffer said the senator did not intend to hit anyone with the binder when she threw it."

HuffPost previously reported that Klobuchar’s conduct became so well-known that the Senate minority leader at that time, Harry Reid, D-Nev., told her to change her behavior.

Klobuchar acknowledged in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier last month that “I can be a tough boss and push people.”

“But that’s because I have high expectations of myself, I have high expectations of those who work for me, and I have a high expectation for our country. My chief of staff has worked for me for six years, my state director for seven years, my campaign manager for 14 years."

She echoed that line on Saturday, although she conceded that she can be “sometimes too tough.”

“I know I can be tough on people, sometimes too tough, that I can push them too hard, that I can always do better,” she said.

Bruce Ohr told Congress that he met with Glenn Simpson in August 2016, a claim that directly conflicts with what the Fusion GPS founder told Congress in his own testimony.

Simpson said that he met Ohr only after the 2016 election. The inconsistency has led one Republican to claim that Simpson is “in real legal jeopardy” over his testimony.

Ohr also testified that Simpson was the source for a heavily disputed allegation about conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell.

Justice Department official Bruce Ohr’s congressional testimony undercuts testimony given by Glenn Simpson, the founder of the opposition firm that commissioned the infamous Steele dossier.

Ohr’s testimony, a transcript of which was published Friday, also confirms reports that Simpson was the source of a heavily disputed allegation about conservative attorney Cleta Mitchell.

Ohr told lawmakers in an Aug. 28, 2018 hearing that he met Simpson prior to the 2016 election to discuss information gathered by Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the dossier. That conflicts with Simpson’s testimony to the House Intelligence Committee that he met Ohr only after the election and at Ohr’s request.

Ohr also revealed Simpson provided him during a meeting in December 2016 with a seemingly false lead about Mitchell that ended up in a news article published in 2018.

Both of Simpson’s inaccurate claims have been reported in the past, but they were not officially confirmed until Friday, when Georgia GOP Rep. Doug Collins released a transcript of Ohr’s testimony before the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committees.

In his interview, Ohr discussed his interactions with Simpson and Steele, a former MI6 officer. Ohr served as a back channel between Steele and the FBI after the 2016 election. He met twice with both Simpson and Steele to exchange information that Steele gathered as part of the dossier project.

Some Republican lawmakers have suggested that Simpson lied about the timeline of his interactions with Ohr, whose wife worked as a contractor for Fusion GPS. Texas GOP Rep. John Ratcliffe said on Oct. 14, 2018 that Simpson faced “real legal jeopardy” over his testimony. Simpson pleaded the Fifth two days later to avoid testifying to the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committees. (RELATED: GOP Lawmaker: Glenn Simpson ‘In Real Legal Jeopardy’ Over Congressional Testimony)

The testimony that could land Simpson in hot water took place before the House Intelligence Committee on Nov. 14, 2017. In the closed-door hearing, Simpson acknowledged that he met with Ohr, but he claimed that the meeting occurred after the 2016 election. He also suggested that Ohr sought the meeting.

Simpson revealed his contacts with Ohr after being asked in the November 2017 hearing whether he had heard from anyone at the FBI or Justice Department about his and Steele’s investigation of President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.

“After the election. I mean, during the election, no,” Simpson said.

“What did you hear after and from whom and when?” a House staffer asked.

“I was asked to provide some information to the Justice Department,” Simpson replied.

When asked who contacted him and when, Simpson said: “It was by a prosecutor named Bruce Ohr, who was following up. You know, I can’t remember when. It was sometime after Thanksgiving, I think.”

“Did Mr. Ohr reach out to you, or how did that shake out?” he was asked.

Simpson did not acknowledge that he reached out to Ohr. Instead, he said that Steele had been in touch with Ohr “and that Bruce wanted more information.” Steele and Ohr had met on July 30, 2016.

Simpson claimed again that his interaction with Ohr occurred only after the election.

“The context of this is that it was after the election,” said Simpson. “A very surprising thing had happened, which is that Donald Trump had won. There was — we were — by that time, we were enormously concerned about rapidly accumulating indications that the Russian Government had mounted a massive attack on the American election system and that, you know, Donald Trump or his associates might have been involved.”

Ohr suggested in his testimony that Simpson initiated the December 2016 meeting. He also said that Simpson provided him with a memory stick that he wanted given to the FBI. That would seem to conflict with Simpson’s testimony that he was asked to provide information to the Justice Department and that Ohr requested the information.

“So, as I think I may have mentioned earlier, Glenn Simpson wanted to meet in early December, whatever date that was in December. At that meeting, he provided me with a memory stick and provided some additional details on information about possible connections between the Russian Government and the Trump campaign,” Ohr testified.

Simpson has not commented on his testimony. It is unclear why Simpson would have lied about his contacts with Ohr, but some Republicans have theorized the opposition researcher did not want to acknowledge the breadth of his efforts to disseminate information from the dossier.

Ohr also confirmed in his testimony that Simpson provided him with information on Mitchell during their meeting on Dec. 10, 2016.

“I think it was Glenn Simpson mentioned to me was that Cleta Mitchell became aware of money moving through the NRA or something like that from Russia,” Ohr testified. “And I don’t remember the exact circumstances. And that she was upset about it, but the election was over. I seem to remember that from my notes.”

Mitchell would later pop up on the radar of California Rep. Adam Schiff. The top House Intelligence Democrat released a memo on March 13, 2018 that included Mitchell on a list of potential witnesses in the committee’s Russia investigation. Two days later, McClatchy published a story revealing why Mitchell was of interest to Schiff.

The McClatchy story matched closely with what Simpson told Ohr, suggesting that the Fusion GPS founder was somehow the initial source of information on Mitchell. Mitchell had privately expressed concerns that Russian money flowed into the National Rifle Association, according to the article.

There was one major flaw in the story.

The report initially claimed that Mitchell was a member of NRA’s board of directors. But in response to the report, Mitchell said that she left the board in 2012 and had no contact with the gun rights group during the campaign.

Mitchell told The Daily Caller News Foundation that reporters from ABC News and CNN approached her weeks before Schiff’s letter inquiring about the information that ended up in the McClatchy piece.

Notably, the two reporters who wrote the Mitchell story are also behind two controversial reports alleging that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen visited Prague in August 2016 to meet with Kremlin officials. That claim is one of the main allegations of collusion in Steele’s dossier. Cohen denied the claim in sworn congressional testimony on Feb. 27.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

Left-wing parties in the U.S. and the United Kingdom are both struggling to deal with a wave of accusations of anti-Semitism within their parties — as their party bases push them increasingly to the left and toward positions more critical of Israel.

The controversy blew up for the Democratic Party this week after Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., suggested that supporters of Israel were pushing for U.S. politicians to declare "allegiance" to Israel.

“I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country," Omar said. "I want to ask why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, of fossil fuel industries, or big pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying movement that is influencing policy."

It was the latest controversial statement she’d made in reference to Israel that critics said used anti-Semitic dogwhistles. Omar tweeted in 2012: “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel." Last month, she got into trouble when she suggested some members of Congress were being paid by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to support Israel.

“It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” she tweeted.

Omar apologized for those statements but has not done so for her “allegiance” comments, which ramped up pressure on Democrats to condemn her remarks — leading ultimately to an resolution against bigotry that was put for a vote on the floor Friday and ultimately passed.

Meanwhile, in the U.K., the Labour Party — which moved to the left after the election of once-fringe left-wing MP Jeremy Corbyn as leader in 2015 — has been wrestling with a similar crisis of its own for years, but one that has dramatically escalated in recent weeks.

Corbyn is a longtime critic of Israel and has been criticized for his ties to extreme pro-Palestinian groups, including for a past meeting where he expressed support for members of Hamas and Hezbollah, which he called “friends.” He has since said he was using “inclusive language” as he sought to bring about a peace process and that he does not support or agree with them.

But he was criticized last year when a picture emerged of him attending a wreath-laying ceremony in 2014 that honored perpetrators of the 1972 Munich terror attack against Israeli athletes, although he said he was there to honor those killed in a 1985 Israeli air strike.

Although he has repeatedly condemned anti-Semitism, Corbyn made things somewhat worse for himself when, in a 2016 speech intended to condemn anti-Semitism and distance himself from some of the controversies, he appeared to compare Israel to the Islamic State.

"Our Jewish friends are no more responsible for the actions of Israel or the Netanyahu government than our Muslim friends are for those of various self-styled Islamic states or organizations," he said in a speech.

But the party’s far left-wing and Corbyn allies have turned those incidents into a full-blown crisis as a steady stream of anti-Israel and allegedly anti-Semitic comments have increased.

A high-profile moment came in 2016 when top Corbyn ally and former London Mayor Ken Livingstone — who is often referred to as “Red Ken” for his hard-left views — was suspended by the party in 2016 for saying that Adolf Hitler was a Zionist before he “went mad and ended up killing 6 million Jews.”

Much of the controversy has focused on the failure of the party as a whole to appropriately discipline those accused of anti-Semitism. This week, the Times of London reported that a Corbyn ally recommended against the suspension of a Labour member who posted an image online of an alien with the Star of David on its back grasping the Statue of Liberty by the face, suggesting control over the US. The activist added the caption: “The most accurate photo I’ve seen all year!”

The link between the swing to the left — including on Israel — by parties and the rise of the anti-Semitism has been noted by both left-wing and right-wing commentators and outlets. In an explainer on the crisis, left-wing outlet Vox notes that the socialist left “tend to be passionately pro-Palestine” and that “such a position can lead to tensions between left-wing anti-Zionists and mainstream Jewish communities.”

“This tension has at times led to a tendency on the left to indulge in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and tropes – like blaming a Jewish conspiracy for Western governments’ support of Israel or equating Jews who support Israel with Nazi collaborators.”

On the right, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens this week accused Omar of “bringing Corbynism to the Democratic Party” and called her a “case study in the ease with which strident criticism of Israel shades into anti-Semitism.”

“It says something about the progressive movement today that it has no trouble denouncing Republican racism, real and alleged, every day of the week but has so much trouble calling out a naked anti-Semite in its own ranks,” Stephens said. “This is how progressivism becomes Corbynism. It’s how the left finds its own path toward legitimizing hate. It’s how self-declared anti-fascists develop their own forms of fascism.”

However strong the link is between a left-wing shift and a rise in anti-Semitism, the fact is that it is a crisis that both parties are struggling to deal with.

In the U.S., the Democrats struggled to condemn Omar for her remarks. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, was mocked for saying that Omar “has a different experience in the use of words." Meanwhile, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., defended Omar, saying that her experience as a refugee from Somalia was "more personal" than Jews whose parents survived the Holocaust.

The resolution passed Friday was initially intended to deal with Omar’s comments, but was eventually expanded to include all forms of bigotry including white supremacy. It was so broad that Omar was even able to hail it as a victory as it condemned anti-Muslim bigotry.

“Today is historic on many fronts," Omar, along with Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Andre Carson, D-Ind., said in a statement. "It’s the first time we have voted on a resolution condemning anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation’s history. Anti-Muslim crimes have increased 99 percent from 2014-2016 and are still on the rise."

“We are tremendously proud to be part of a body that has put forth a condemnation of all forms of bigotry including anti-Semitism, racism, and white supremacy," the statement continued. "At a time when extremism is on the rise, we must explicitly denounce religious intolerance of all kinds and acknowledge the pain felt by all communities. Our nation is having a difficult conversation and we believe this is great progress.”

In the U.K., the controversy is overshadowing Labour’s attempt to hold Prime Minister Theresa May’s feet to the fire over her handling of Brexit. A number of centrist Labour MPs broke off from the party last month and, alongside some Conservative Party rebels, formed the Independent Group — an independent party bloc with an eye to becoming a centrist party. The Labour rebels cited the party’s handling of the anti-Semitism as a key reason for their departure and accused Corbyn of tolerating anti-Semitism in the Labour Party ranks.

“Over the past three years…the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn has become infected with the scourge of anti-Jewish racism,” a statement by MP Joan Ryan last month said. “This problem simply did not exist in the party before his election as leader. No previous Labour leader would have allowed this huge shame to befall the party.”

It is unclear what such a breakaway group could mean for the next general election, which could come as early as this year. But one possibility is that it could split the left-wing vote, bringing in disenfranchised Labour centrists, giving an enormous electoral advantage for the Conservative Party due to the country’s first-past-the-post electoral system.

Meanwhile in the U.S., the controversy is already becoming an issue for potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. President Trump has latched onto the issue, saying it is “inconceivable” that Democrats “will not act to condemn [anti-Semitism].”

Last week, Democrats in the House of Representatives passed a draconian campaign finance proposal, H.R. 1, that many groups — even the American Civil Liberties Union — have opposed.

This came days after news broke that a conservative government watchdog organization filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her chief of staff were involved in “an extensive off-the-books operation to make hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenditures in support of multiple candidates.”

The irony that might be delicious — if we didn’t have a dual system of justice that punished conservatives and let big-government Democrats off the hook — is that AOC was role-playing the “bad guy” in congressional committee hearings for H.R. 1 last month.

The “socialist it girl” and crusader against automobiles, airplanes, and cow farts — along with her chief of staff, Saikat Charkrabarti — allegedly utilized a mix of tax-exempt political committees and for-profit companies in ways that evade clear law about reporting receipts and expenditures related to political campaigns.

The complaint, filed by National Legal and Policy Center, claims the respondents “were aware or should have been aware of the sweeping and apparent illegal nature of the enterprise.” It explains that AOC and Charkrabarti were PAC principals even as the Ocasio-Cortez campaign committee was raising money, leading to questions about illegal coordination under campaign finance laws.

This scheme even looks like it was set up to create confusion. For example, they used the same name, “Brand New Congress,” for a political action committee and for a limited liability company. At one moment the PAC had the employees and provided services to a network of campaigns; the next moment it was a for-profit company with the employees providing the services.

The for-profit Brand New Congress eventually received over $800,000 for “strategic consulting,” raising questions of how money was actually spent in accordance with FEC law, and whether donors knew their money would finance what looked like a shell game.

Charkrabarti is a high-tech millionaire and an experienced campaign professional from the Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential run. He should know the rules. But dark-money inquisition, role-playing bad girl Ocasio-Cortez told Fox News with an air of defiance, “There is no violation.”

If past is prologue, the big-government Democrats will skate with barely a slap on the wrist. Contrast this with the tale of conservative Texas Rep. Steve Stockman, whose appeal is being prepared as he sits in jail for a ten-year sentence on criminal violations.

Stockman was a constant and highly public whistleblower on the Obama administration’s corruption. His sad and shocking battle with the dual system of justice began when he filed a House Resolution demanding the arrest of now-former IRS official Lois Lerner for contempt of Congress. Two weeks later, the FBI was at his door. Then came a three-year Department of Justice nightmare that traversed four (yes, four) grand juries, where three did not indict, but a fourth finally did.

This Russian roulette-style justice finally found its bullet for Stockman in a system stacked against him. Ocasio-Cortez, whose support for what I describe as Lois Lerner’s dream campaign finance legislation, will assuredly receive no such unfair treatment.

Stockman’s so-called crimes involved raising money from two donors, one of whom was deceased by the time the trial occurred. He wanted money for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that had designs on purchasing a building in Washington, where conservative values would be made available in the swamp itself. That may have been strike one. Not enough money was raised for the purchase, so what the nonprofit did is what every nonprofit legally does, which is spend the money on other parts of its mission. This happens every day.

Stockman made other decisions involving his campaign and his assistance to nonprofit organizations that landed him in hot water. They were what I would call, in retrospect, unwise for a conservative crusader operating in the world of the deep state and liberal-dominated administrative state. Had I been advising him, I’d have told him what he’s doing is legal, but he should have papered the events better.

At his trial, I am told, the judge denied Stockman’s motions, and prohibited the mention of politics or Lois Lerner. So his legal defense was silenced. His associate was pressured with criminal prosecution to testify against him. Where have we heard that recently?

Stockman was ultimately sentenced for numerous frauds, money laundering, conspiracy, and campaign finance violations. To reach some of the cascading criminal sentencing, it appears the judge made a serious error of law about what constitutes “express advocacy” under FEC regulations.

It has been reported to me that an FBI agent was heard to have said, “You know, Lois Lerner is our former colleague.” Whether that admission of retribution is true, it nevertheless appears Stockman was unfairly treated and railroaded.

Lois Lerner was never prosecuted by Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder, and now H.R. 1 is dream legislation for partisan deep state operatives like her. Oh, and AOC sure knows how to butter her bread. The irony isn’t so delicious for Steve Stockman and small-government, constitutional conservatives in this dual system of justice.

Mark J. Fitzgibbons is president of corporate affairs at American Target Advertising, Inc., America’s oldest and largest conservative direct marketing and fundraising agency. He has litigated constitutional cases, and is co-author with Richard Viguerie of the e-booklet The Law That Governs Government: Reclaiming The Constitution From Usurpers And Society’s Biggest Lawbreaker.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.

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